Mutagen list and monitor operations do not neutralize control characters in text controlled by remote endpoints

Summary

Mutagen provides real-time file synchronization and flexible network forwarding for developers. Prior to versions 0.16.6 and 0.17.1 in `mutagen` and prior to version 0.17.1 in `mutagen-compose`, Mutagen `list` and `monitor` commands are susceptible to control characters that could be provided by remote endpoints. This could cause terminal corruption, either intentional or unintentional, if these characters were present in error messages or file paths/names. This could be used as an attack vector if synchronizing with an untrusted remote endpoint, synchronizing files not under control of the user, or forwarding to/from an untrusted remote endpoint. On very old systems with terminals susceptible to issues such as CVE-2003-0069, the issue could theoretically cause code execution. The problem has been patched in Mutagen v0.16.6 and v0.17.1. Earlier versions of Mutagen are no longer supported and will not be patched. Versions of Mutagen after v0.18.0 will also have the patch merged. As a workaround, avoiding synchronization of untrusted files or interaction with untrusted remote endpoints should mitigate any risk.

Timeline

1. May 8, 2023, 5:54 PM UTCCVE published
2. Jan 29, 2025, 3:23 PM UTCCISA SSVC assessment

   Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial

3. Jan 29, 2025, 3:23 PM UTCRecord last updated

Affected versions

• mutagen-io mutagen

  github.com/mutagen-io/mutagen < 0.16.6, github.com/mutagen-io/mutagen-compose < 0.17.1

• github.com/mutagen-io/mutagenGo

  fixed in 0.16.6; From 0.17.0 · fixed in 0.17.1

• github.com/mutagen-io/mutagen-composeGo

  fixed in 0.17.1

• github.com/mutagen-io/mutagenGo

  fixed in 0.16.6

• github.com/mutagen-io/mutagenGo

  From 0.17.0 · fixed in 0.17.1

References 3